Move Your Team Ahead of Its Balance

Do you ever intentionally throw your team off balance?

I once worked with another manager who had a completely different style than mine. He was direct, authoritative, boss-like. And yet, his people loved him. Style is just a start. And Russ backed up his style with a heart as big as all outdoors. Sure, he was boss like, but in a lovable, Lou Grant kind of heart-of-gold.

But his sense of humor was wicked funny. One day he told me that he was going to rearrange his team's workstations.

"I'm going to change every single one," he said. "Everyone is going to come to work and discover that they sit somewhere else."

"Won't that rock the boat?" I asked.

"Absolutely. It will rock them right out of their complacency. And the ones who have been relishing their coveted places will see what it's like next to the copy machine. And the one next to the copy machine will finally get a break. It will shake things up. Some of them will hate it."

"Did you talk with your team about it first?"

"Nah. I'm just going to do it. And you know why?"

"Why, Russ?"

"Because I can."

I laughed. And he laughed. And, he was completely serious. He did that and many other things to keep his team just slightly off balance occasionally. They didn't always know what to expect. Work life included surprises. Some of those surprises were delightful, and some were less than liked. But he had one of the strongest, most productive teams I've ever seen.

Style is just a start. High performance leaders back it up with coaching, mentoring, and just plain caring.

What can you do this week that might delight your team? What might throw them just off balance enough to stumble farther ahead then they might have otherwise?

-- Doug Smith

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New Ideas

New ideas won't break you but they can make you bigger. -- doug smith

Your Reputation

More authority means higher levels of responsibility. More power requires more service to others, not less. What you do with your power is who you will be known as. Also, how you use the power you have creates who people will remember you as. How do you want to be remembered? -- doug smith

What You Need

Use what you've learned to become what you need. -- doug smith

Measures Matter

Some people measure quantify first and quality later. Some people measure money first and impact to the team later (not even second!). How you measure productivity might determine your character and your reputation. Put people first. -- doug smith

High Performance Leadership Combination

We can rationalize anything without making it justified. Leaders should always ask: who is this good for other than me? High performance leadership does NOT mean performance at any cost. It means performance that serves a noble cause while also benefiting people. High performance leadership is a combination. Results without relationships are shallow and temporary. Take care of both, and you'll be a high performance leader. -- doug smith

Decide

What do you want? Are you getting what you want? Intention is direction. Decide. And, then go. -- doug smith

For example

Get good at something that won't obsolete itself. For example: emotional intelligence creating great conversations encouraging people leadership What would you add to the list? Which ones are you developing? -- doug smith

Personally

Improving performance does require us to take our work seriously. But it does not require us to take ourselves too seriously. Taking things personally is a waste of self-esteem. -- doug smith

Start With Kindness

When you start with kindness you don't have to stay there, but you probably will. It works better for others. It works better for you. If you're human, you'll probably relapse. It does take practice to stay the course. The course starts by starting. When you start with kindness, it becomes more naturally the way. High performance leadership develops from the core leadership strengths of clarity, creativity, courage, and compassion. Build one of those strengths today thru some act of kindness and the others will get stronger as well. -- doug smith

Show Integrity

The goals we seek bring a lot of pull to them. We get wrapped in them. It's useful and it's powerful when we care about our goals so much that they propel us forward and keep us working even when we're tired, beyond the boundaries of our usual limitations. But they should not take us beyond the boundaries of our usual values. They should not trick us into bending the rules just because the rules are in the way. Truly high performance leaders of character who are focused, and centered, and noble maintain integrity. No cheating is ever worth the outcome. Integrity is so rare that many people don't even recognize. If you do, be thankful. We need leaders like you. To truly understand integrity you've got to keep it. Even when it's hard. Even the lines are blurred. -- doug smith

High Performance Leadership

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